Mogador is the great commercial depot of the Atlantic coast, and therefore “the beautiful Ishweira, the beloved town,” of Muley Abd Errahman.  Its trade is principally, however, with the south, the provinces of Sous and Wadnoun, and the Western Sahara.  Mogador is also the bona-fide port of the southern capital of Morocco.  Two-thirds of the commerce of Mogador is carried on with England, the rest is divided among the other nations of Europe; but of this third, I should think France has one half.  The port of Mogador has usually some half-a-dozen vessels lying in it, but from twenty to thirty have been seen there.  They are usually sixty days discharging and taking in cargo.  Each vessel pays forty dollars port-dues, which must press very heavily upon small vessels, but it is seldom that a vessel of less than one hundred tons is seen at Mogador.  The grand staple exports are only two, gum and almonds; upon the sale of these, the commercial activity of this city entirely depends.  English vessels come directly from London, the French from Marseilles; but so badly is this commerce managed that, at the present time, Morocco produce is higher in Mogador than it is in London or Marseilles; for instance, Morocco almonds are cheaper in London than Mogador.

Mazagan, and some few other ports, export produce direct to Europe, but Tangier is the next commercial port of the empire.  There is an important trade in manufactures and provisions carried on between Tangier and Gibraltar.  The Fez merchants have resident agents in Gibraltar.  Curious stories are told of Maroquine adventurers leaving Tangier and Fez as camel-drivers and town-porters, and then assuming the character and style of merchants in Gibraltar, throwing over their shoulders a splendid woollen burnouse, and folding round their heads a thoroughly orthodox turban in large swelling folds of milk-white purity.

In this way, they will walk through the stores of Gibraltar, and obtain thousands of dollars’ worth of credit.  The merchant-emperor found it necessary to put a stop to this, and promulgated a decree to the effect, that “he would not, for the future, be responsible for the debts of any of his subjects contracted out of his dominions.”

This was aimed at these trading adventurers, and the decree was transmitted to the British Consul, who had it published in the Gibraltar Gazette while I was staying in that city.  Up to this time, the Emperor, singularly enough, had made himself responsible for all the debts of his subjects trading with Gibraltar.

The trade in provisions at Tangier is most active, bullocks, sheep, butcher’s meat, fowls, eggs, game and pigeons, grain and flour, &c., are daily shipped from Tangier to Gibraltar.  The garrison and population of Gibraltar draw more than two-thirds of their provisions from this and other northern parts of Morocco.